For nearly three years I traveled around the United States to upwards of 30 states and every week I rented a car. Seldom did I use the same rental company and drove a potpourri of cars manufactured in this country, Korea, Germany and Japan.

Here are some interesting statistics that I hope all will enjoy.

In a survey of 200 children (6-9 yrs.) taken by Tootsie's of London (July 2008):

98% could not identify an artichoke

Congratulations to Barack Obama and congratulations to the supporters who, through very hard work and tireless efforts were victorious yesterday.

There was no doubt among conservatives and moderates that this was inevitable. We attempted to tell ourselves that there was a chance, albeit outside chance that McCain would win. Of course, anyone reading anything I write, knows that McCain was not my first or even second choice.

I felt compelled to respond to Ken Braiterman's latest diatribe in the Monitor's letters section on McCain and the election.

I believe that Ken is a great writer and contributor to BlogsNH and has given us some great topics to discuss: Pizzeria Uno, advertisements that we remember, etc. I seldom agree with his politics but thank you, Ken, for being the catalyst for this blog post. Out of the many back and forth posts in the letters section emerged an interesting topic, the "middle class".

I stay away from the letters page in the Monitor these days, reading only the original letter and wincing as I glance through the people posting replies. It has been vitriolic of late as one of the most nasty campaign seasons grinds to a conclusion in about two weeks.

In March an ordinance passed in Barnstead, wrapped in a pretty package masquerading as protection of our water table under the guise of a way to stop companies from coming in and pumping bottled water from that table.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS. No, make that $700 billion!

THESE SENATORS ARE GIVING THE FINGER TO THE VOTERS. THE PROBLEM IS THAT MOST PROGRESSIVES WILL RE-ELECT THEM. WHAT A BUNCH OF DISTASTEFUL, UNETHICAL EXAMPLES OF EXACTLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH WASHINGTON.

Boston Market closed it's doors and ceased operations in Concord last week.  This closure and future closures by Boston Market should come as no surprise.

I can speak to this topic precisely as I was the training manager for Boston Market back in 1995-1997 and I opened several units for the company before landing in Concord and running that as a training store for the New England area.